Most months, Charles Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division for the U.S. Department of State (DOS), provides visa bulletin explanations and predictions. The information for the September 2017 Visa Bulletin includes updated predictions for fiscal year 2018 (FY18), which begins October 1,...
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently announced expansion of the biometric exit technology pilot program to Washington Dulles International Airport, Chicago O'Hare International Airport, George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, and McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. The program uses facial recognition technology...
On July 31, 2017, John Kelly was sworn in as President Trump's new chief of staff, replacing the recently ousted Reince Priebus. Prior to taking on his new role, Kelly had been serving as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), since January...
In a recent trend, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has begun to deny advance parole (AP) applications (form I-131) for applicants who have traveled abroad before their applications are approved. This is in stark contrast to the previous, longstanding policy, which allowed...
The September 2017 Visa Bulletin, which is the last visa bulletin of fiscal year 2017, was released by the U.S. Department of State (DOS) this morning. There was no movement in the dates for filing chart, and only a bit of progress in the final...
Today, President Trump announced his support for a bill proposed by Republican Senators Tom Cotton (AR) and David Perdue (GA) that, if passed, would make massive changes to the U.S. immigration system. The proposal would replace the current employment-based immigration system with a merit-based system....
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policy manual was updated on July 26, 2017, to now require that nearly all naturalization applicants provide biometrics, regardless of age. Prior to this, those applying to become U.S. citizens who were 75 years of age or older,...
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) delayed the effective start date of the parole program for entrepreneurs until March 14, 2018. The DHS apparently will use the additional time to evaluate whether the proposed entrepreneur program should be eliminated altogether, in light of President...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a new version of the application to register permanent residence or adjust status (form I-485). Effective August 25, 2017, the USCIS will only accept the new version of the I-485, which lists an edition date of 06/25/2017...
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released a smartphone app to assist those who are studying to take the civics portion of the naturalization test. The app, which is called USCIS: Civics Test Study Tools, is available for both Apple and Android devices. Background One...
